FDA Head Refuses To Address Trump Claim That 99% Of COVID-19 Cases Are ‘Totally Harmless’
The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration repeatedly refused to comment on President Donald Trump’s claim that 99% of coronavirus cases in the U.S. “are totally harmless,” despite data showing that the majority of people infected with the virus show symptoms of COVID-19.
Trump, who has long attempted to downplay the seriousness of the virus, was speaking at the White House on Saturday when he made the claim without citing a source or any evidence.
“We have tested almost 40 million people. By so doing, we show cases — 99% of which are totally harmless — results that no other country can show because no other country has testing that we have,” Trump said.
Dr. Stephen Hahn — the commissioner of food and drugs who is also a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force — was asked about Trump’s latest claim in two separate interviews Sunday but refused to address it.
Dana Bash pressed Hahn on CNN’s “State of the Union”: “If they hear the president saying 99% of people are fine, they’re going to change their behavior, potentially get sick, infect other people.”
“I’m not going to get into who’s right and who’s wrong,” Hahn responded.
Hahn dodged the question again when asked by ABC’s “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
It’s not clear where Trump got the percentage or what his definition of “totally harmless” is.
Representatives for the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment Sunday.
The CDC estimated that only 35% of COVID-19 cases are asymptomatic, meaning that about two-thirds of the people who contract the virus show symptoms of it. Whether people with the virus are asymptomatic or not, they are still capable of infecting others, which could be considered harmful in itself.
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, of the more than 3 million people who have contracted the virus in the U.S., roughly 4.4% of them have died.
Overall, the cumulative COVID-19 hospitalization rate in the U.S. is still quite low, at 102.5 per 100,000, or about 0.1% of the entire population. Those aged 65 years and older make up the most hospitalizations, followed by those between 50 and 64 years of age.
Globally, about 20% of all confirmed COVID-19 patients need supplemental oxygen or advanced hospital care, The New York Times reported, citing Dr. Janet Diaz, head of clinical care for the World Health Organization’s emergencies program.
CORRECTION: A previous version stated incorrectly that a hospitalization rate of 102.5 per 100,000 is 1%. It’s 0.1%. It also compared the hospitalization rate (as a percentage of total population) to the worldwide hospitalization rate (as a percentage of total known cases), and has been updated to reflect that these numbers are not directly comparable.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
